When Emily Martin joined us as Head of Finance during the 2020 lockdown, she probably expected her time supporting the charity would be spent organising bills rather than climbing hills. But, after becoming part of the family here at Children North East and seeing our work first hand, she signed herself, her husband and her two sons up for our Hadrian’s Wall fundraising walk.

Taking on the challenge of trekking 130 kilometres over the summer of 2021 is no mean feat, but it’s even more impressive when you’re aged 9 and 11. However, her boys were fearless, even when faced with a final 55km hike over three days along the actual Hadrian’s Wall.

Emily says, “I’m so proud of the boys, they embraced the whole challenge. We had many laughs and made some amazing memories along the way. We took on big distances but seeing their perseverance kept Joward and myself going. We also have to say a huge thank you to the friends and family who joined us for parts of the walk.”

The family walked the full 130km over eight legs, which took in the beautiful landscapes of Northumberland and Cumbria.

“The boys are too young to understand fully the specialist work that Children North East do but we’ve talked about the fact that some young people don’t have the same experiences and opportunities as others and they were keen to do something that could help.”

Emily and her family raised an incredible £2,000 thanks to support from friends, family and Joward’s employer Bellway Homes, who match funded their efforts with a £1,000 donation, as part of their employee fundraising pledge.

“We have been really blown away by the generosity of the people who sponsored us. I think one reason is that the mission of Children North East is something anyone can get on board with. Everyone deserves a childhood that is safe, healthy and happy, and which doesn’t limit their opportunities in later life. This money will fund services that help make that possible.”

We couldn’t tell you the Martin’s story without sharing a few of the hits, dedicated by their supporters, on their hiking playlist, which included the very fitting tunes ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ by Queen, ‘One Step Beyond’ from Madness and The Proclaimers’ track ‘500 Miles’. If you’re hinting your next challenge will be 500 miles Emily, we’ll be cheering you on! There is still time to donate to Emily’s fundraiser on the Give Penny site.

Thanks to NHS Charities Together, Newcastle Hospitals Charity, County Durham Community Foundation and CDDFT Charity for supporting us with funding of £242,650.00 from the Covid-19 Community Partnership Grants Programme (North East and North Cumbria). This generous funding will enable our unique partnership between the North East and North Cumbria Child Health and Wellbeing Network (CHWN), NE Youth, Children North East and the collaboration STAR (South Tees ARts) Project led by TIN Arts. This programme is specifically designed to tackle inequalities for children across the region by:

• Embedding Youth Mental Health First Aid skills to those most in need through VCSE organisations working in local communities.
• Delivering a collaborative arts intervention with wrap around support for young people and families attending primary schools in our most deprived neighbourhoods
• Tackling barriers that prevent access to health care caused through financial struggles and the impact on mental health in young people
• Working with an apprentice to ensure we engage effectively through social media with our communities

Driven by CHWN, our organisations work in partnership across sector boundaries, combining skills knowledge and expertise to tackle health inequalities, limiting the collateral damage that Covid-19 has caused. CHWN membership across Health, Education, VCSE and Social Care, coupled with a robust children and young people voice, defined the most urgent areas of support post pandemic; these are Poverty, Mental Health, Family Support and Communication. TIC (Tackling Inequalities for Children) focuses on these ‘given’ areas of need.

This project is supported by a Marketing and Communications Apprentice, based within NE Youth, who will work closely with teams, delivering health promotion opportunities to children and young people regionally in an accessible and relevant format.

The two core areas that this project will deliver:

1. A regionwide focus on systemic health inequalities
2. An innovative cross sector project offering wrap around delivery within a defined locality.

Regionwide Tackling Inequalities Focus

CHWN will provide a train the trainer programme (allocated to our 4 geographical areas: Durham, North Cumbria, Northumberland and Tees Valley) embedding Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) skills into communities that need it most. Children NE will have a specific focus on tackling barriers to engagement within health settings. This innovative, newly designed and piloted, ‘Poverty Proofing© Health Settings’, includes powerful consultation with those living in poverty, to understand the wide and varied barriers caused through financial struggles, on access to health provision, leading to co-produced solutions and systemic change. Delivery will include an offer of training for health setting and partner organisation staff on mental health first aid and the impacts of poverty.

Tackling Inequalities within a defined locality

TIN Arts will lead in Tees Valley, to undertake and test a ‘deep dive’ initiative centred around an arts-based intervention (South Tees ARts Project – STAR) working with young people and families connected to schools in two severely deprived neighbourhoods, utilising further complimentary approaches including social prescribing, family support interventions, YMHFA and Poverty Proofing. This unique collaborative programme will identify new ways of combatting the negative impacts of mental health by tackling the consequences of poverty, providing family support utilising community assets and delivering arts based innovation to support a community to thrive, whilst simultaneously generating region wide learning that can be replicated. The pictures in this article share some of the great work already happening a part of the project!

We look forward to sharing updates as this work progresses. Find out more and link to partner websites through the links and emails below:

• North East and North Cumbria’s Child Health and Wellbeing Network: View their website or follow them on Twitter at @NorthNetChild. You can also join the membership by using this form.

• TIN Arts: View their website or get in touch at [email protected].

• Children North East: Visit their website or follow them on Twitter at @ChildrenCNE.

• NE Youth: Visit their website or follow them on Twitter at @NEYouth_.

Photography by Ian Paine

Children North East are excited to share the appointment of two new roles leading services across the charity. The Head of Families and Parenting and Head of Youth Services and Poverty Proofing have been created to help take our 2021 strategy forward.

In collaboration with the Operations Direction and Senior Leadership Team, our new Heads Ricky Murray and Luke Bramhall will sustain, grow and develop our work across the North East.

With their support and direction, our staff, sessional workers, students and volunteers will grow our portfolio of interventions and increase the reach of our services supporting babies, children, young people and their families.

Meet Ricky Murray, our new Head of Families and Parenting

Under the direction of Ricky Murray, Families and Parenting will continue to deliver support for babies, children and their families, and develop new ways of providing help to those who need it. These include:

• Therapeutic infant-parent support, such as the specialist NEWPIP
• Interventions for families promoting safeguarding, child safety and providing support in times of crisis.
• Domestic abuse support programmes.
• Activities run out of our Cowgate Centre; which recently was announced as a Newcastle Council Community Hub.

Ricky will bring over a decade of experience leading and delivering programmes for young people to the role, including three years managing our Young People Services (YPS). During his tenure with YPS, he grew a reputation for pursuing innovative new ways of working alongside young people, including recently securing funding for the Tech For Good Minecraft counselling programme. This year he was named as part of the UK Acumen Fellowship of Young Leaders

Ricky comments: “I am really happy to be working with such a passionate and dedicated team and I have arrived at a really exciting time, with a number of new projects ready to take off. The families that access our services have always received high-quality support and this won’t change.

“I hope to bring a fresh perspective, concentrating on the improvement of administrative processes to better evidence the work that we do. I will also be looking to use our vast network of organisations to bring our top-quality services to more families and more areas in the North East.”

Meet Luke Bramhall, our new Head of Youth Services and Poverty Proofing

Our new Head of Youth Services and Poverty Proofing, Luke Bramhall will oversee diverse projects working with young people on a local, regional and national scale, focused on the four strategic areas: Youth Services, Youth Counselling, Poverty Proofing© and Participation. These include:

• Mental health support for young people, including providing counselling on behalf of the NHS and partners.
• Poverty Proofing® programmes, working with schools and other organisations to help remove inequality for those facing financial hardship.
• Leading and delivering community participation and advocacy projects, such as the VOICES Project.
• Youth work activities run out of our WEYES Youth Service Centre.

Over his eight years with Children North East, Luke has spearheaded the growth of our Poverty Proofing© initiative, helping grow Poverty Proofing© the School Day into a nationally recognised intervention that has been delivered in over 300 schools in the UK. Luke is a vocal advocate about issues impacting children living in poverty and a consistent champion of their voices. He is leading on the delivery of the North of Tyne Poverty Truth Commission and is Inequalities Advisor to the North East and North Cumbria Child Health and Wellbeing Network.

Luke comments: “I am delighted to be appointed as Head of Youth Services and Poverty Proofing and am relishing the opportunity to work with a brilliant group of practitioners from such a wide range of backgrounds. The coming years are looking really bright for the Youth Services and Poverty Proofing work and I am excited at how this service can contribute to the overall strategy of CNE by building on its outstanding work, and being a beacon of hope for babies, children, young people and families across the region and beyond.”

A new chapter

Children North East faces a new landscape of need, in which 37% of children in the North East live in poverty and one in six report a diagnosable mental health condition.

Michele Deans, Operations Director comments: “Children North East, like all charities, has had a challenging time through the COVID pandemic, but one thing is clear, families now more than ever need access to our services. Created through our restructure of our operational services, these key strategic roles will work with myself, and their teams to ensure our services are able to be sustained, grown and available to a wider reach of people across the North East”

With the leadership of Ricky Murray and Luke Bramhall, our hope is that we grow our impact towards our purpose of ensuring all babies, children and young people are given a chance to grow up happy and healthy regardless of background or family circumstances.

Everyone needs a hero, but imagine if when you were young your hero wasn’t a perfectly poised, sculpted to perfection, can-do-it-all? What if instead, your hero was a mountain-climbing, sweet-eating, eye-rolling kid, who just turned 11… oh, and she goes on exciting quests whilst managing her anxiety?

Children North East knew from the first meeting with Mortal Fools that Melva was the hero children needed. Melva had the power to give young people their own world, own language and friends through which to confront anxiety.

Since it began life as a live performance package in 2017, Melva has been on a journey as exciting and surprising as the characters it follows; giving children, teachers and families a space to explore mental health in a fun way, which speaks to young people in a voice like their own.

“Melva is simply the best drama intervention I have ever seen… the rewards are instant and long-lasting.” Headteacher

Melva started in KS2 classrooms with Mortal Fools putting on the play for students and joining forces with Children North East to explore the issues it featured via workshops.

What seemed to resonate with students, was the characters and the language they used to communicate. Worries belonged to adults, “worrits” belonged to them. Listening to the voices of young people is at the heart of our values as a charity, so watching them add to the conversations started by Melva and take them in new directions was an exciting experience for the team.

Then the pandemic hit. Mortal Fools reflected on how it could harness the power of Melva to address the disruption to young people’s daily experience and the toll this was quickly taking on their mental health. How could Melva be turned into an intervention that was accessible for all, not just in the classroom? An innovative online game was developed, putting the young player at the heart of the quest.

“I learned that being afraid of something doesn’t mean that you can’t do it.” Young Participant

As a charity supporting young people, we experienced first-hand how traumatic it was for so many young people to have the support around them cut off overnight. Melva offered schools, organisations and families the chance to quickly roll-out a tool for exploring issues relating to mental health remotely; from anxiety to relationships to sex and health education (RHSE). Often when they needed it most.

But what is the next in the tale of Melva? With a growing community of supporters and a host of research showing the long-term impact it can make for children, Mortal Fools is taking its original play to screens across the UK in film form.

With a first showing at Gosforth Civic Theatre under its belt, and a launch event planned for the 11^th November, Children North East sees the potential for Melva’s latest chapter as another step towards improving the lives of tens of thousands of young people across the UK and beyond.

“I auditioned for the part because I love children’s theatre; some of the best theatre I’ve ever seen was made for children and when it’s done right it can be life changing.” Katie Powell, Actor who plays Melva Mapletree

When the programme launched, data indicated that 1 in 8 young people had a diagnosable mental health condition. Today that figure has increased to 1 in 6. Melva may be a mountain-climbing, sweet-eating, eye-rolling kid, who just turned 11, but it seems the world needs her now more than ever.

If you are interested in attending the launch at Gosforth Civic Theatre tomorrow evening  (11^th November), or would like to join a digital showcase of the film on 30^th November, get in touch with Billie Jenkins at [email protected]. Learn more about the fantastic Melva interventions for schools and families at www.melva.org.uk.

In our latest team guest blog, Participation Worker Quinn Stanger shares his experience of joining Children North East.

Starting a new role at a new organisation is always a challenge, regardless of how confident and extrovert you are. However, I have to say my first two weeks have been pleasantly relaxed and welcoming, whilst absorbing a lot of information.

On my first day, I was excited to get started. Despite understanding my job title and role was Participation Worker, I knew little of what my day-to-day tasks would comprise. My line manager, like all the staff, was welcoming, warm and friendly. We discussed many different aspects of the current Poverty Proofing and Participation Team, focussing on the two projects I’d split my week between.

Utilising my previous experience of Youth Work and Social Action, I have been given the lead on an #iwill Social Action project. This is based within a school environment, incorporating the mentoring model, which the Youth Team delivers. Also, very excitingly, I have the challenge of working on a Poverty Truth Commission. Coming on board to short term (2 year) projects once they’ve started was a challenge: getting up to speed with the process and intricacies of both took some time. Thankfully, the whole team bounce off each other, reflect together and share examples of pieces of work that may be relevant.

I was excited that the two projects were a mix of local and regional focusses, with one having a national relevance. It soon became evident that the inequality of poverty was a driving factor for many of the projects within the team. Children North East is currently undergoing Poverty Proofing® itself as an organisation. In my first week, I sat in on training with staff from across the charity, covering aspects of what it means to be ‘Poverty Proofed’. Having studied inequalities, intersectionality and subsequent effects on children, young people and families, I was surprised at my passionate response to the statistics and videos shown during the training (yes, I did cry). Particularly Seen and Heard, a social action project from some high school students in Scotland to raise awareness and tackle the stigma associated with poverty. This was an excellent start to my work on the Poverty Truth Commission, which aims to give a voice to those with lived experience of poverty.

As with all inductions to a new organisation, I had policies to read (sometimes the list seemed never-ending) and mandatory training. Likewise, I had one-to-ones with my new team members to get to know them whilst absorbing the myriad of current, past, and future projects. I was keen to hear the differing backgrounds of the team and the skills and abilities each member brings. Furthermore, I had meetings scheduled with all of the Senior Management Team, to which I was pleasantly surprised. I hadn’t quite grasped the size and scale of the charity I had become a part of, which surprised me that time is given to meet (sometimes virtually) with new employees, providing space to understand senior leaders’ roles and ask direct questions.

Overwhelming, I have garnered the passion and drive that the team, and the individuals employed, have toward ensuring the voices of babies, children, young people and families are heard locally, regionally and nationally. Equally, the respect and compassion the charity as a whole shows toward their staff. I look forward to working, developing and flourishing in my new environment.

Children North East are the delivery partner of the North of Tyne Poverty Truth Commission, appointed by the North of Tyne Combined Authority.

The North of Tyne Poverty Truth Commission brings together residents with experience of living in poverty with civic and business representatives. The commission aims to better understand the challenges faced by residents living in poverty in Newcastle, North Tyneside, and Northumberland, and to come up with practical changes and solutions to some of those challenges. 

The impact of the coronavirus crisis on people already struggling, the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis and the steps needed for economic recovery are a central theme of the Commission’s work.

The launch event provided a platform for Community Commissioners to share their diverse stories and for all Commissioners to begin to develop relationships in preparation for the beginning of working groups.  

Attendees reflected on the power of understanding the experiences of Community Commissioners; noting the barriers people have faced and some of the specific aspects of their stories. Civic and Business Commissioners have reported a sense of motivation, realisation and commitment to move forward with the next stages of the commission. One commissioner commenting that they had been prompted to “think about how policy is implemented locally and the unintended effects on people.” 

In Autumn 2022 the commission is moving into its “explore” and “experiment” stages whereby commissioners work together to discuss, debate and recommend practical solutions in response to the lived experience of community commissioners.  

This work will focus on three themes which have been identified by Community Commissioners.

General enquiries: Luke Bramhall, Assistant Head of Operations [email protected]

For any press or media enquires: Billie Jenkins, Marketing and Communications Manager

billie[email protected]

In Autumn 2022 the commission is moving into its “explore” and “experiment” stages whereby commissioners work together to discuss, debate and recommend practical solutions in response to the lived experience of community commissioners.  

This work will focus on three themes which have been identified by Community Commissioners:

• Food/fuel poverty  
• Caring responsibilities (elderly and children with additional needs) 
• Health (physical health, mental health and disability)  

Commissioners will move into working groups to allow them to develop close working relationships, exploring one of these themes. 

If you are a North of Tyne resident with lived experience of poverty and you are interested in getting involved with the Poverty Truth Commission, you can contact Children North East to find out more.